1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photographic light-sensitive material having at least one dyed hydrophilic colloid layer, and more particularly, to a silver halide photographic light-sensitive material having at least one hydrophilic colloid layer containing one or more dyes which are readily decolored or removed during a photographic processing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the field of silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials, it is a common practice to color one or more layers, including a silver halide emulsion layer or silver halide emulsion layers, for the purpose of absorbing light of a certain wavelength region.
Where the spectral composition of light which falls upon a silver halide emulsion layer or silver halide emulsion layers must be controlled, a colored layer is usually employed in the photographic light-sensitive material, which layer being positioned farther from the support than the silver halide emulsion layer. Such a layer is called a filter layer. In cases of photographic materials having a plurality of photographic emulsion layers such as multi-layer color photographic materials, the filter layer can be positioned between two emulsion layers.
Where it is desired to prevent the image from becoming indistinct (or halation) caused by light which is scattered during or after the transmission of the light through a photographic emulsion layer or layers, reflected on the interface between the support and an emulsion layer or on the surface of the photographic light-sensitive material opposite the emulsion layer or layers, and passes again through the emulsion layer or layers, a colored layer can be arranged between the support and an emulsion layer or on the surface of the support opposite the emulsion layer or layers. Such a colored layer is called an antihalation layer. With photographic light-sensitive materials having a plurality of emulsion layers (such as multi-layer color photographic materials), such a colored layer can be positioned on occasion between two emulsion layers.
In order to prevent a reduction in the sharpness of the image due to the diffusion of light in an emulsion layer (which is generally referred to as irradiation), the photographic layers can also be colored.
Most of these colored layers are composed of a hydrophilic colloid and hence one or more hydrophilic dyes are usually incorporated therein in order to color these layers. The dyes employed for these purposes, in addition to having an appropriate color absorption adequate for their use, must satisfy the following requirements:
1. The dyes must be photochemically inert, that is, they must not exert any photochemically adverse effects, e.g., a reduction in sensitivity, a regression of latent images or fogging, upon the properties of the emulsion layers.
2. The dyes must be either decolored during photographic processing or dissolved into a processing solution or a wash solution, so that the dyes leave no stain in the photographic light-sensitive materials after processing.
Many efforts have been made by those skilled in the art to discover dyes that meet these requirements. Dyes previously proposed have included, for example, oxonol dyes with a pyrazolone nucleus represented by those described in British Pat. No. 506,385; oxonol dyes with a barbituric acid nucleus represented by those described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,247,127; other oxonol dyes as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,533,472 and 3,379,533 and British Pat. No. 1,278,621; hemi-oxonol dyes represented by those described in British Pat. No. 584,609; styryl dyes represented by those described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,298,733; merocyanine dyes represented by those described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,493,747; cyanine dyes represented by those described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,843,486; and the like.
Of these previously known dyes, benzylidene- or cinnamylidene-pyrazolone dyes represented by those described in British Pat. No. 584,609 have been widely used as useful dyes since they absorb light in a relatively broad wavelength region of the spectrum, can be readily decolored in a processing solution containing sulfite, and only slightly chemically influence the photographic properties of the photographic emulsions. In addition to those dyes described in British Pat. No. 584,609, a number of dyes of this series for use in a filter layer or an antihalation layer of photographic light-sensitive materials have been proposed in, for example, British Pat. Nos. 1,120,294 and 1,142,697; U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,316,091, 3,540,887, 3,544,325 and 3,615,546, and the like.
However, when paper is used as a support of a photographic light-sensitive material, these known dyes are absorbed on the paper support and are not removed by washing although they can be decolored in a photographic processing solution containing sulfite, so that they remain in the photographic material without being removed during the washing step and their color appears again along with a reduction in the concentration of the sulfite in the paper support. In particular, where a number of photographic papers are processed in a definite amount of a photographic processing solution, the dyes accumulate in the solution in a decolored state so that they are retained in the paper support and produce color stain in the washing step.